In silent pain the eternal Son

Between the first and final drafts of this text there was a 15-month gap, with a friend of the author’s at each end. In May 1989, not for the first time, Michael Saward had noted the lack of contemporary hymns on the atoning death of Christ; many songs celebrated his reign, triumph, majesty and power, but few then centred on the cross. The balance has probably been somewhat restored since then, but Christopher Idle was moved to do further work on lines begun the previous month at Oakley, Suffolk, based around 1 Peter 2:21–25. They were then in 6 CM stzs, with BANGOR in mind as a tune. A year later Paul Wigmore let it be known that he was searching for fresh material on this theme for a new book; he was also keen to use John Bell’s tune REALITY. CMI then reworked his earlier material into a new shape, retaining its NT paradoxes and completing it by July 1990; it duly appeared in Worship Songs Ancient and Modern in 1992, and elsewhere since then.

The tune REALITY was composed in 1987, for words by John Bell and Graham Maule, Don’t tell me of a faith that fears, with a refrain ‘I need to know that God is real’—hence the tune name. It has affinities with Scottish folksong and appeared a year later as a melody only, in Vol 2 of the Wild Goose Songs series from the Iona Community. In 1990 it was revised for the Bell/Maule collection Enemy of Apathy; here it is arranged for Praise! David Peacock composed an alternative tune SILENT PAIN, which was included with the words in Hymns for the People (1993).

b Bromley, Kent 1938. Eltham Coll, St Peter’s Coll Oxford (BA, English), Clifton Theol Coll Bristol; ordained in 1965 to a Barrow-in-Furness curacy. He spent 30 years in CofE parish ministry, some in rural Suffolk, mainly in inner London (Peckham, Poplar and Limehouse). Author of over 300 hymn texts, mainly Scripture based, collected in Light upon the River (1998) and Walking by the River (2008), Trees along the River (2018), and now appearing in some 300 books and other publications; see also the dedication of EP1 (p3) to his late wife Marjorie. He served on 5 editorial groups from Psalm Praise (1973) to Praise!; his writing includes ‘Grove’ booklets Hymns in Today’s Language (1982) and Real Hymns, Real Hymn Books (2000), and The Word we preach, the words we sing (Reform, 1998). He edited the quarterly News of Hymnody for 10 years, and briefly the Bulletin of the Hymn Society, on whose committee he served at various times between 1984 and 2006; and addressed British and American Hymn Socs. Until 1996 he often exchanged draft texts with Michael Perry (qv) for mutual criticism and encouragement. From 1995 he was engaged in educational work and writing from home in Peckham, SE London, until retirement in 2003; following his return to Bromley after a gap of 40 years, he has attended Holy Trinity Ch Bromley Common and Hayes Lane Baptist Ch. Owing much to the Proclamation Trust, he also belongs to the Anglican societies Crosslinks and Reform, together with CND and the Christian pacifist Fellowship of Reconciliation. A former governor of 4 primary schools, he has also written songs for school assemblies set to familiar tunes, and (in 2004) Grandpa’s Amazing Poems and Awful Pictures. His bungalow is smoke-free, alcohol-free, car-free, gun-free and TV-free. Nos.13, 18, 21, 23A, 24B, 27B, 28, 31, 35, 36, 37, 48, 50, 68, 78, 79, 80, 81, 83, 85, 89, 92, 95, 102, 108, 109, 114, 118, 119A, 121A, 125, 128, 131, 145B, 157, 176, 177, 193*, 313*, 333, 339, 388, 392, 420, 428, 450, 451, 463, 478, 506, 514, 537, 548, 551, 572, 594, 597, 620, 621, 622, 636, 668, 669, 693, 747, 763, 819, 914, 917, 920, 945, 954, 956, 968, 976, 1003, 1012, 1084, 1098, 1138, 1151, 1158, 1159, 1178, 1179, 1181, 1201, 1203, 1204, 1205, 1209, 1210, 1211, 1212, 1221, 1227, 1236, 1237, 1244, 1247, 5017, 5018, 5019, 5020.